Cruise - Day 8 - Rarotonga, Cook Islands
Sunday, September 20th, 2009Mist covered mountains overlooking coral covered beaches with crystal clear water. Kids riding the back of utes, singing. Scooters everywhere.
It’s such a shame that we only had half a day scheduled in Rarotonga, and even more of a shame that we arrived late so most people only got a couple of hours ashore. The weather was stunning: mid 20s, with just enough cloud to take some off the sting out of the sun. We were all really looking forward get hitting a beach and spending a good part of the afternoon there. Unfortunately, our tickets for the tender off the boat wouldn’t have us leaving until after 4, way too close the boy’s night time routine. So instead we all went for a swim in the ship’s pool, and then Ange stayed back with the boys and I had an hour or so to explore by myself.
It was very relaxing to just wander around taking photos, without having to lug prams, bags and kids around. I think we’re going to try and give each other that opportunity more often. After 2 hours it felt like I’d had about a week off.
We’re back out at see now, heading to Tahiti. Both the boys are getting an inordinate amount of attention from the staff and other passengers, and people keep stopping me when I’m by myself to tell me what good kids we have. The other night, after a pretty difficult day, another couple with young kids asked us at dinner how we managed to get them to be so quiet and well behaved. We both laughed like crazy - it was the first time one of us hadn’t been yelling at the other 3 for the whole day.